Claypot Lemongrass Fish - Fish #3

A recipe that I got from a restaurant's cookbook of which I highly doubt the chefs tell you the real story.
The recipe just called for the fish to be simmered.. but the pictures tell another story.

A fried fish and boiled fish don't look the same.

Fish Pie - Fish Week #2

Fish pie is a traditional British dish. Read more about it here. If I were to make this again with more seafood, I'll name it as Fisherman's pie.

During that time, my brother in law dines with us on week days.I thought this pie was huge and when my BIL said he won’t be coming for dinner, I was worried it won’t be finished, but I was wrong. My hubby and I ate it all with pleasure. LOL.

So good!

Pesmol Fish - Fish Week #1

Creamy fried fish from Indonesia.
The creaminess came from the candlenut and the coconut milk. Very rich.

I saw that there are Betawi versions and Javanese versions. I don't know which version mine belong to. Kindly enlighten me.
I also saw some uses carp, Tilapia and some used Indian mackerel, so I made a guess that the type of fish is not critical for this dish.

Nutella Bread Pudding - Nutella Week #3

Rarely, the man remembers what I bake.
He tends to not know what food is in the house and eats what I serve him.

He knows I'm baking when he sees me doing it, but doesn't remember, won't go looking, won't bother until I asks him if he wants a serving, of which the usual answer will be yes.

Flourless Nutella Souffle Cake - Nutella week #2

Sometimes I am greedy.

I saw Nutella going ‘Buy 1 Free 1’ and so I grabbed 4 and paid for 2. I knew the expiry is in 4 month’s time. Usually this is a Fast Moving 'Edible' Good in my household so 4 jars is no big deal. But no no no! During Christmas season and then all the pre-CNY preparation has left these jars of deliciousness untouched in the cabinet. By the time I remembered them it was 1 month to expiry.

I had to bake with them in order to use them up ASAP.

This is my first bake with Nutella, no joke. Usually I am too scroogy to use this in bakes as Nutella is quite expensive. The Nutella Chiffon cake was baked a week after this cake.

Nutella Chiffon Cake - Nutella Week #1

Sometimes..... I buy too much Nutella when it's on offer... that's when the expiry date is near. But I'm usually not bothered about it. It's cheap!

I just saw the price for a 750gm bottle yesterday and it was selling at the regular price of RM32.++.
So expensive.

Urab Bali @ Balinese Salad - Indonesia AFF #3

An addictive salad that made me keep on munching.

I remembered an urap on my Balinese Rijsttafel that I had in Kunyit Bali restaurant that was quite unforgettable, but I forgot the name, not the taste. Haha. After cooking this... I found that it wasn't what I was looking for. Nonetheless, it's still a very nice dish.

The dish that I was actually looking for was Jukut Urab, oh... too late too late. Never mind, I'll save the recipe for another day to cook. The problem of not knowing the local name makes google search soooo difficult.

The difference between the two is that Jukut Urab has a refreshing taste of naturally sweet coconut milk with no grated coconut in it, whereas Urab Bali has the wonderful aroma of a fried coconut sambal. I remembered my husband looking at me slurping up all the gravy from the Jukut Urab, hahaha!

Urab Bali
Reference: Cooking Tackle 

7 pcs long beans
1 cup bean sprouts
4 stalks water convolvulus (kangkung)or amaranth (bayam)
1 cup grated coconut
2 Tbsp coconut oil or cooking oil

Blend to a fine paste
5 shallots
3 clove garlic
2 candlenuts
Birds eye chilli and chilli according to your preference
Galangal, lesser galangal, shrimp paste, eye ball 1 tsp each
3 young kaffir lime leaves, midrib removed

Seasoning
1 tsp brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt

1. Toast coconut in pan until slightly golden. Remove and set aside. Heat coconut oil in pan and saute the paste until it starts to release oil. Add in salt and sugar and then the toasted coconut. Combine it well. Taste it, it should be very slightly over salted.
2. Lightly blanch all the vegetables, dunk them into cold water and cut into preferred lengths.
3. Put the cut vegetables into a bigger bowl and put in all the spicy coconut. Toss it around with hand and if you can, using a gentle squeezing motion, as if you are marinating the vegetables.
4. Serve with some crispy shallots if preferred (I didn't put).

The aromatic coconut sambal that is going to dress the blanched vegetables

I realised all the Balinese food I cooked for this week's postings all looked shreddy. And so, the photography looks a bit boring.. believe me, it's no fun taking pictures with dishes with the same visual characteristics. I'm not a creative person to come up with different settings, and I am seriously bored with taking pictures nowadays.

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Indonesia Month, 

hosted by Alice of I Love. I Cook. I Bake.

Sambal Bongkot Bali - Indonesia AFF #2

Bongkot is Balinese for torch ginger or what we know as bunga kantan locally.

Sambal Bongkot is a special sambal from Bali that uses the shoot of the torch ginger, yes the shoot. Now, that is something that isn 't easily available in Malaysia, not in the market, any market for sure. The buds are easy, but not the shoots. Unless you have access to the plants

In Malaysia we use torch ginger bud to cook assam laksa and asam pedas fish. I used to think that the flower is not 'edible', as in 'swallow-able', but when I saw my ex colleague eating 2 buds in a row in her assam laksa, I knew it can be swallowed. Some things are meant to flavour and season and not everything is edible.

Ayam Pelalah @ Balinese Shredded Chicken - AFF Indonesia #1

I have been to Bali once, and that's for my honeymoon in 2005
Indonesia is the only country that I have ever traveled to, besides Singapore.

I love the friendliness of the people in Bali and most of all, I love the local cuisine.
There's a whiff of similarities as there's chilli, lemongrass, shrimp paste, galangal, shallots and garlic in the things that I eat..but, there is always this different smell in all their sambals. I couldn't figure out what was that special unfamiliar smell, until I got to know it's the lesser galangal, known as kencur in Indonesia, cekur in Malaysia and 沙姜 in Chinese. It is a type of ginger that we usually use for confinement purposes because of it's health properties.